Blood For Blood  Chapter 1
by COBRASTEVE
Summary: This is the start to my second story posted. If you would like, feel free to tell me what you think. Advice is always welcome!
1. Chapter 1

- Ghost in the Shell -

"Blood for Blood"

**Author's Note:**

Okay, this is my second shot at a story. I hope that I've learned some things from advice and reading stories done by Risensoldier and Deunen4eva so hopefully this will be good enough that you'll enjoy it. As always comment, critiques and advice are all welcome.

Oh yeah, I own no part of Ghost in the Shell of course, this is just my own imagination!

-:-

Chapter 1 – Hate

In the dim light of his office at the back his warehouse, Sergei sat in silence, staring at the framed picture that was sitting on his desktop. He idly noticed that the smoke from the cigarette he was smoking, illuminated by the overhead light, curled and twisted as it climbed towards the ceiling. It almost seemed to take some tortured pathway as it climbed, sort of like his thoughts on this dark night.

As he stared at the picture all he felt was pain, that and the need for revenge against those who had hurt him.

"Nicholai, son, I will pay these people back for taking you from me. I will make them pay."

It had been a year now since his son's death, and Sergei had just about completed his plans for exacting his revenge upon Section 9.

The fact that Nicholai had been one of his henchmen, a killer and vicious thug to boot, meant nothing. Blood was blood after all and it must be avenged.

Sergei was the head of a small branch of a crime family, and he ran his entire organization from this office. While he took council from some of his older, more trustworthy men, he called the shots on how things went and made the decisions.

He alone was the boss, you see, and he had always envisioned turning this role over to his only son Nicholai, now dead. With no heir left he felt empty; it was as if the future had been destroyed.

The hate and thoughts of violence that boiled up out of his heart were so black and twisted that he could almost feel himself shaking.

Sergei reached over to the phone and dialed a number. A voice answered after one ring.

"Yes?"

"Anatoly. Get those four men I talked to you about and head over to the office at the pier. We need to talk."

"Right away, Boss." Click.

Sergei exhaled and looked at the phone as he put it down. He had such a death grip on it his knuckles were white. "Soon Major, soon we will see how you feel about losing your people. They won't be your own blood but I will kill them all the same."

Sergei glanced back to his son's picture. "Nicky, I promise she will know who did this, I swear."

With that Sergei levered himself up out of his chair, turned and headed out the door towards his car. The wind was cold and disturbed his jacket and hair but he hardly seemed to notice.

As Sergei slowed his car and parked it behind the rundown building at the end of the pier's warehouses he noticed two other cars already there.

"Good, they're here. Now to get on with this." Sergei walked inside and took a seat at the table where his men already were waiting for him.

"Okay Boss, we're here so what's the story?"

Sergei's eyed darted towards his henchman with a look that would freeze water into ice. "Anatoly, you should remember the cat that died from curiosity."

Each of the four were trusted men who had been with him a long time. Hit men who were both skilled and had experience in killing and combat. Even a casual observer could tell that these men weren't dock workers. Their eyes, their attitudes and the scars they bore told the story of what they were.

Sergei looked around and held the gaze of each man for a second before continuing.

"All of you remember my son, my Nicholai. You also remember who killed him, correct?"

"Yeah, Boss. Sure. Yeah, several voices chimed in with appropriate responses.

"Well it's time now to settle this debt with those who were responsible for his death. Those who killed my son."

Sergei unfolded a map he took from his jacket and spread it out onto the tabletop so they could all see it and follow his words. "Now listen carefully."


	2. Chapter 2

- Ghost in the Shell -

"Blood for Blood"

Chapter 2 – Chaos

"Major, can you give me an update on the surveillance mission your team is currently engaged in? Where are you?" Chief Aramaki, head of Section 9, sat at his desk in his office as he monitored the progress of the teams his unit had out on field assignments. Behind him the windows dominating the exterior wall gave him a panoramic vista of the city below him that he seldom had time to enjoy.

"I'm roughly halfway through the second storage section of their warehouse." A soft but confident feminine voice entered the Chief's mind supplying him with an answer. The voice belonged to Major Motoko Kusanagi, his second in command and also the team's leader.

"Chief, I find it very strange how lightly the security measures seem to be for this facility. And that's not all."

"What do you mean Major?"

"Well, Chief, so far we haven't seen anything in here that's out of place. I mean nothing at all."

"The internal security seems too light you say? That doesn't seem right considering the type of weapons these people are supposed to be smuggling into Japan. We expected it to be closely guarded with considerable surveillance and externally guarded as well."

"I realize that Chief. Something here just doesn't seem to be right."

"Very well, Major. Be careful." Chief Aramaki terminated the connection and tried to consider the ramifications of what he had just heard.

"Always Chief." Major Kusanagi crept along the aisleway behind a line of shelves containig packing crates. She was wearing a sneak suit of optical camoflage over her normal body armor of ballistic cloth.

Although she appeared to be a very attractive young woman, her body was full cyborg which gave her the tremendous speed, power and co-ordination she possessed. And right now she was using everything she had to accomplish her mission of searching this warehouse for any traces of illegal weaponry without being detected by any of the guards or surveillance systems.

Taking long quick strides, she moved from one section of crates to another checking them as swiftly as she could. As she reached the end of one section she crouched down holding her weapon out in front of her as she scanned her surroundings with her eyes.

As she moved to her next point of concealment between two crates she crouched down and froze briefly allowing her eyes to track the lighting and access ways for any infra red sensors, laser detection systems or motion detectors.

Coming to the end of a line of crates, she leapt upwards landing on top of one of the crates using the I-beam it was next to as a shield.

The Major mentally opened a circuit to her team members. "Batou, Togusa, is anything going on out there? Any activity or reaction at all?"

The two men in question were outside the warehouse concealed in two strategic spots allowing them to provide support, detection surveillance and guarding their exit route should everything go to hell and they needed to escape quickly.

"No Major, a couple of bored looking guards sitting in their little boxes at the access points, that's all." Batou looked up and down the roadway which linked the warehouses to the main roadway as he spoke. He was crouching down at the edge of a copse of trees almost at the front entrance.

Batou was also a full cyborg although his body type exemplified what an android body built for combat would look like. Tall, broad and powerfully built, he looked every bit human except for his eyes which had been replaced by a pair of special optical cameras.

"Well, is there anything down at your end?" he snarled at his young partner, Togusa.

"No Boss, it's dead quiet down this way as well and out to the end of the alleyway also. No rovers, no patrol, nothing." Togusa, Batou's partner was the youngest member of Section 9 and the member with the least amount of cyborg implants as well.

Togusa was stationed at the end of the warehouse roadway also concealed in a tree line with their car.

The Major frowned silently for a second before speaking. "Chief, are you monitoring all this?"

"I can hear you Major."

"Sir, this isn't making any sense. There aren't any weapons so far nor does there seem to be anyone here to guard them if there were." Kusanagi stayed crouched and continually swiveled her head in all directions as she spoke.

"I understand that, Major."

"What do you make of it, then? This was supposed to be the storage point for the anti-air missile packs being smuggled in according to the people at Intel."

"I'm just as surprised as you, Major. All I can think is that there has been some error in the timing of the delivery."

Batou's voice broke into the circuit. "Hey all this is telling me so far is that it's time to get the hell out of here before someone comes along to brighten our day, which up till now has been a complete waste of time."

Chief Aramaki closed his eyes and shook his head slightly at Batou's outburst. "All right, let's keep calm everyone. Major. As soon as you can tell me that there is nothing to find get your team out of there and return to base."

Major Kusanagi tilted her head, listening to something she thought she had heard. "Okay Chief, that won't very long at all. I'm about…" Kusanagi stopped talking suddenly as she heard the noise growing louder from the other end of the warehouse.

She listened carefully turning her head trying to identify the sound's direction and what was making it. She realized it was getting louder fast.

"Chief we've got company coming. I can hear something coming towards me, but I can't see it or tell what it is yet."

The Major snapped out orders to her people. "Batou, you and Togusa get ready to get us the hell out of here now."

Still crouched down in the tree line but now clearly agitated, Batou replied. "Roger that, Major We'll be ready." Batou Looked back towards his partner's position. "Togusa, get the car read, we're about to blow this dump fast."

"Okay, Boss. I'm ready." Togusa, hearing what was going on was already in the car with its engine running.

Inside the warehouse, the Major could now easily hear what was coming her way and she knew it was going to be bad.

Jumping down from her perch on the crates and sprinting to the line of shadow cast by the crates, she was just starting to make her way back towards the far entrance when a large, fast moving nightmare turned the corner not that far from her present position.

Although it obviously was a machine, it resembled nothing quite so much as a gigantic, black spider. This spider though was much deadlier. Instead of fangs it sported a pair of three barreled mini-guns low in front built into a rotating turret.

Its head area sported what was obviously an array of sensor and tracking devices for acquiring its prey.

The Major froze as it turned her way hoping that her sneak suit combined with her concealed position might shield her enough to escape detection.

Her heart skipped a beat as the thing's turreted head snapped over towards her direction. Kusanagi immediately turned and her long legs powered her into flight as she sprinted away from the thing that started forward in pursuit.

"Togusa, Batou, get that car over here. I've got some company and it's definitely hostile. Be at the entrance ASAP."

As the Major sprinted for all she was worth towards freedom she heard a rough tearing noise behind her and she threw herself to the right, dodging behind a line of crates just as a stream of shells from the warehouses guardian barely missed her, flying over her back to rip into the crates she had just been running in front of.

Matoko was now running back towards the entranceway she had entered but she now had a line of crates between her and the main aisle way where the doorway was. The same aisle way where the monster chasing her was. The only good thing she could see was that she was definitely faster.

With some desperation creeping into her voice she called out a warning, "Batou, are you two in position? I'm almost out and you better be ready, this thing is right on my tail."

Batou sprang forward out of concealment to scream to his patner,'Togusa!" He never got to finish as Togusa lit the tires up in smoke as he accelerated out onto the blacktop and raced over to Batou.

Batou ripped the door open before the car had even stopped and threw himself in. "Go, Go you idiot! Move it!" Togusa already had the car flying towards the entrance and their leader who was still running for her life.

As Matoko neared the end of the warehouse she desperately tried to think of a way to get over to the main aisle way and the door without being torn to shreds. She remembered a mind's eye view of the crates positions when she first entered and it came into her mind swift as a lightning bolt.

Just as she came close to the end of the line, she pushed herself even harder and raced at her full velocity before turning left towards the crates between her and freedom. She only had a split second to time her approach towards one set of crates that were only stacked two high.

Just as she got to the gap in the line Kusanagi jumped up and slammed both feet onto the top crate launching herself high into the air and above the killing machines line of fire.

She hit the ground on her feet still running with everything she had just at the entrance to the door with enough speed to take her outside just as another stream of shells ripped into the doorway shreading it.

As she literally flew out into the darkness she slammed into the side of their car stunning her momentarily. Before she could regain her sense of balance a huge arm and hand wrapped around her waist propelling her inside the car a second before Togusa again lit the tires up in a frenzied effort to escape being killed.

"Chief?"

"Yes Major?"

"Chief, there were no weapons that I had time to detect, but it turned out to be better guarded than I thought."

"Very well Major , return to base then and make your report. Nice job."

"Yeah Chief, sure."


	3. Chapter 3

**-Ghost in the Shell-**

"**Blood for Blood"**

**Chapter 3 – Set up**

An older model cargo van that had seen better days slowed as it neared the end of an alleyway. This warehouse district was in a seedier part of the city and like the men in the van, it had seen better times as well.

As times had changed here, so had the clientele. But while there were as many illicit business dealings as there were legal ones in this area, it was the first time that this district was going to be used for an ambush.

Wind gusts blew the leaves and errant garbage into swirling piles as the van came to a halt. It had stopped underneath a sagging overhang that covered an empty garage bay which was out of sight from the main approach at the other end of the main alleyway.

The van had come to a stop next to Sergei's Lincoln which had been sitting there waiting for them. The Lincoln's driver, Sergei, silently turned to look at his passenger. His gravelly, cold voice cut the air between the two men.

"Anatoly, do they have everything with them? Everything that I requested? I don't want any mistakes here."

"Don't worry Sergei, everything has been taken into account and both the men and all the needed gear is ready." Anatoly hadn't turned to meet his bosses' gaze. He could feel Sergei's eyes boring into his skull.

The doors of the van opened and the men inside stepped out carrying the tools of their trade. One of them carried an Accutech MP8A3 sniper rifle with the latest enhanced telescopic sights.

The next three carried Soviet made AKD assault rifles with twin magazines taped together at their bases for quick reloading.

The last man emerging from the vehicle carried a man portable rotary grenade launcher slung over his shoulder.

The men stood silently in place by the van for a minute or so as they swept their surroundings with their eyes, scoping the area out.

They were all hard looking men, wearing ballistic armor over what had once been military uniforms. Web gear with pouches, killing knives and military sidearms were worn by all.

What completed the picture were the dead, lifeless eyes each of the men possessed.

As a group they turned and walked over to the car and clustered around the two men. One of them, a tall powerfully built man with a bald pate, swarthy skin and numerous tattoos around his neck spoke.

"Well Anatoly, we are here."

Anatoly glanced briefly to his side at Sergei before taking a step forward and looking at the team leader who was standing before him.

"So I see Georg, so I see." Anatoly smiled but it was the smile of a man who was conducting a business deal. "It is good to see you again. I take it all the equipment that you requested was delivered and is all in good working order?"

Georg put his hands on his hips as he returned the same smile back at Anatoly. "Of course Anatoly, everything is just as it should be. I knew you would take care of it all."

And then the smile vanished. We need to go over some points of this Anatoly; I have questions that need answers."

Anatoly tried to look as sincere as he could as he raised his hands. "This does not surprise me Georg, and they will be answered. I will now turn your questions over to our benefactor who can best answer and explain it all much better than I."

As he gestured to Sergei he stepped back to allow the focus of their attention to switch to Sergei who stepped forward and faced Georg.

After a few moments of sizing each other up, Georg asked the most obvious question first.

"Very well, can you tell me who we will be facing and how many will there be?"

Sergei looked at each of the team members before replying. "You will be facing a team from Section 9. I can't tell you for certain how many they will be, but the usual complement of one of their teams is from 3 to 6 members. Each with cyborg augments, extensive training and they will be well armed."

Sergei looked down for a few seconds before continuing. "For the problem I intend to create for them I expect a team of 3 maybe 4 members with the usual urban warfare loadout."

Sergei stepped closer to Georg and looked into his eyes. "What I want to achieve is to cripple Section 9 by killing this team. I don't want them to be driven off or allowed to escape. I want them to die."

Sergei side stepped away from Georg as he addressed the entire team. "There is no one for you to provide cover for, no one for you to protect. Your only task is to wait for their arrival and when they move into position… I want them all killed. It is just that simple."

A few looks were exchanged among team members but no comments.

Georg raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head as if he were amused by the whole thing. "We're not providing cover fire or protecting some other group as a diversion. Correct?"

Sergei nodded his head to Georg, "That is correct. Your goal is to kill this team, nothing more. I want to see their dead bodies lying on the ground when you leave the site."

"What purpose will this serve?" Georg asked. "You must know that stirring Section 9 up in this manor will have grave consequences, will it not?"

Sergei clasped his hands behind his back and nodded at the ground. "Yes I am aware of that as well, Georg. The reason, does it matter to you what it is really?"

"No, I guess it really doesn't matter at all." Georg looked up at Sergei once and then did a quick once around look at the surrounding area. "We can be set up and in place by tomorrow Sergei. Then we will be ready. Is this acceptable to you?"

Sergei's face slowly broke into a grim nasty smile. "That will be acceptable, Georg. If you need anything, contact Anatoly and it will be taken care of.

As Sergei started to turn to leave, he hesitated briefly and looked over his shoulder. "As agreed, the payment has already been deposited as was requested. Do well tomorrow Georg. Goodbye."

Sergei then turned and walked back to his car with Anatoly to leave. Georg watched them briefly before he turned to talk to his men.

"Very well. You have all heard. This is nothing more than an assassination. A hit, and we have all done this before. Now let's talk about positions and covering fields of fire. I don't want any of them to somehow make it out alive when we open fire on them."

Georg stepped over to the man holding the grenade launcher. He was a short but stocky with a very muscular build. Georg slapped him on the shoulder, smiling at him."Vasily, we will go down to the end of this alley and pick out at least two sites for your position."

Georg turned to a second man on the team who was holding the sniper rifle. "Dmitri, you will come also. We will see what we have here and what our options are. We will select a hide for you and you can start the site prep and a range card."

Dmitri, a tall, lean man with deep set eyes said nothing but merely nodded his head slightly as a nasty grin slowly spread across his face. His eyes seemed to constantly scan back and forth across their surroundings.

Lastly, Georg looked towards the remaining three men of his team. "Vladimir, Popov and Constantine, I want you three men to go out and give me an area reconnaissance of this entire area. I want no surprises or loose ends in the terrain we face or axis of approach or escape. He looked around to all of them. "Are there any questions as to what I want?"

All of them merely nodded and turned to attend to their assignments in setting up the killing zone.


	4. Chapter 4

-Ghost in the Shell -

"Blood for Blood"

**Author's Note:**

**Sorry I'm so late with an update but, well, you know how things happen...**

**-:-**

Chapter 4 –

Batou leaned forward as he slammed his rather massive fist down upon the table which they were all seated at. The resounding boom matched the angry glare on his face as he looked around at his fellow team members. Batou's grey synthleather jacket seemed ready to burst at the seams as it stretched over his shoulders.

"Aw for Christ's sake, is this gonna be another one of these wild goose chases we've been getting sent on?"

This planning meeting was to cover the next raid by Section 9 as they searched for the weapons which were being smuggled in. The team members in attendance were startled by the noise and all looked sharply towards Batou.

Batou's outburst was directed at his team leader, the Major first but then he quickly turned to his boss Chief Aramaki who he had just interrupted.

"Chief, this is the fifth one of these things, the fifth!" Batou waved his hands out in front of him with fingers raised but turning to clenched fists as he spoke. "Two of them involved us getting shot at and barely escaping with our lives."

Chief Aramaki wore a frown as he glanced down to the tabletop. Most of the Section 9 members were all managing to look somewhere else as Batou went on. Everyone that is except Major Kusanagi who glared right back at her subordinate before she managed to speak up in rebuttal to him.

The Major's dark blue skin suit seemed to absorb the light in the room without revealing any details. The fire in the icy stare she was directing at Batou seemed able to make up for it though.

"All right Batou, enough. All of us are just as frustrated with the apparent lack of success we've experienced in these raids as you are. That doesn't mean that we can just abandon the searches and give up merely because of our collective frustration."

The Major leaned forward and half rose as she drove home her point to Batou. As outstanding as he was in his position of second in command of the unit, he did have a tendency to go off on tirades' when he was frustrated, like now.

Chief Aramaki laced his fingers together in front of him as he let out a sigh and slowly lifted his gaze from the tabletop to look into the eyes of his team members.

"I understand how all of you must feel in being asked to continue with these searches considering how random and pointless they seem to be. So far it has been painfully obvious that we haven't found anything despite the information we've gotten from the intel people upon which these raids are based."

The Chief moved his gaze from one member to the next until finally settling upon Batou.

"Despite your frustration I hope you will keep in mind the importance of our finding these caches of weapons as quickly as possible, and certainly before they fall into the wrong hands."

Major Kusanagi planted her elbows onto the conference tabletop and leaned forward pointing a finger at Batou. As she continued to watch Batou with her eyes, the Major turned her head towards the Chief.

"I'm sure we ALL understand the importance of these raids Chief, but it is a little unnerving that despite our best efforts we've come up with nothing at all." As she stressed the word 'all' Batou's gaze dropped, slightly.

Now looking directly at the Chief, the Major continued. "Chief, how reliable is the source of our information? I have to admit I'm not really very impressed with it so far and we're all a little tired of getting shot at for nothing."

"I understand your point Major, and I will look into this more closely I promise you. But for now let's begin the briefing on this next possibility. It's a group of run down buildings in the warehouse district….."

Aramaki reached his hands over the desks controls for the holograph and screen displays. As he moved his fingers a color coded map appeared over the center of the table and hung there motionless in space.

"This is a set of floor plans and drawings of the site in question.." Aramaki's gravelly voice droned on.

The man called Vasily rolled over onto his left side as he reached over with his gloved hand and placed his ballistic data tables and range card he had just finished within easy reach of his hand. He was layed out prone in the nearly dark room getting the feel of his new hide. The wall facing him was about 5 foot from the muzzle end of his sniper rifle and had several holes smashed through the wall of the dilapidated building giving Vasily easy viewing of the main avenue of approach.

Humming softly to himself he raised the rifle up to his shoulder and got into a good solid firing posture bedding the rifle butt into his shoulder. Both elbows locked down giving a bone solid platform holding the barrel steady. He then worked his body around to obtain a steady site picture looking out the holes into the street where he could now see Georg walking away from him down the street.

"This will do, comrade. This will do fine." With no ventilation in the room and no air movement Vasily could feel the sheen of sweat enveloping his body and running down his sides and back. No matter he thought. By just reaching down with his hands without looking he could instantly touch everything he needed whether it be a magazine or any of this other equipment. He was pleased.

Down the street Georg slowly walked the kill zone examining his men's placement, the position of buildings and any possible cover or concealment their enemy might use. He was looking for weak spots , holes or dead spots out of his weapons overlapping fields of fire.

As the wind blew open the front of his fatigue jacket, Georg turned and looked back down the street to the front of the building Vasily was now in setting up. He saw the cracked ruined wall leading up to the second floor window. He could see the holes in the walls which Vasily would be using to shoot through.

He could picture Vasily up there now, waiting, watching him through the scope of his rifle as he turned away and continued walking towards the other end of the street. As he moved he noticed the positions of his other men with their weapons in place. Popov with the grenade-launcher in a corner building to cover both avenues of approach and his other two men, Diitri and Constantine with the assault rifles in adjacent positions to support each other and leave no part of the street uncovered.

Georg continued walking down the street and smiled to himself. All he could hear other than hid own bootsteps was the sound of the wind as it blew through this desolate place. He allowed his thoughts to wander. "Comrades, as set-ups go, they just don't get any tighter than this trap we have layed. We are ready.


End file.
